Hospital relocation depends on training and IT planning

When Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas replaced its 61-year-old hospital with a new state-of-the-art campus across the street in 2015, the transfer of patients required extensive planning, training and IT involvement, according to the HealthTech website.

The new 862-bed facility is twice the size of its predecessor and features all new equipment and technology.

To prepare for the move, hospital officials held practice sessions called “day-in-the-life events” every Friday in the months prior to the grand opening, the article said.

“When you have major changes to infrastructure, layout and workflows, it’s important to do tabletop dry runs of patient care in the new facility,” said Matthew Kull, Parkland’s senior vice president and CIO. “Each department went in and worked with the new building. We always paired them with IT analysts to make sure that as lessons were learned, we could respond quickly and update systems accordingly.”

In building these facilities, healthcare facility managers and their construction partners must strike a balance of incorporating necessary elements of a medical facility, while maintaining a comfortable, homelike atmosphere